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If you have ever played Monopoly or the Kiyosaki Cash-flow Game, you know the most important part of winning either game is having enough assets that provide a stable income. In the case of Monopoly, it’s to build the biggest cash flow portfolio in the form of real estate. And in the case of the Kiyosaki Cash-flow Game, it’s making wise money decisions to be able to quit the rat race for good. Both are needed in the journey to financial independence.

I’m sure we are one of the ugly ducklings in the personal finance hemisphere. As many know to the penny how much their net worth will be. And we? Well, that’s a long story.

Three years ago we set out on an adventure and started investing. Our goal was to accumulate a 100.000 euro net worth within five years, starting from zero. Ambitious, yes. Daunting, yes. Impossible? No.

Although this was our very first financial goal, and the one on which we started our journey with, we never made work of tracking the progress. We never even knew when we reached this point. Because as it turns out, we already did.

It’s one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions and a commonly broken one as well. While numerous investors, big time entrepreneurs and other successful persons swear by it, it is not always that easy to follow suit.

We’re talking about reading books, obviously. Everybody wants to do it more often, but (almost) never get around to it.

I’ve been saying for over a year that I want to read more, and partially I did. I read massive amounts of blog post since I started blogging myself, more then I would even hold imaginable. But reading books has become neglected because of it. So, what happened? Why didn’t I ‘just start’ reading more? Just setting the goal to read more isn’t magically going to help you to actually read more. But that’s about to change.

With the holidays behind us, our lives slowly return to our regular daily routines. Some of you might have had some time off while others were working in quiet offices. Nonetheless, it’s always a different vibe around Christmas and New Years.

Our habit to reflect on the past and make plans for the future around new years might be a whole lot older than we think.

The month of January is named after the Roman god Janus. He had two faces – one looking to the future and one to the past at the same time – is one of the oldest god known to man and one of the most famous one as well, back in the day. Many referred to him as the god of beginnings, the light, movement, transitions, change, or the passing of time. His resemblance was used to portray doors, entrances, banners and of course: money.

In essence, he became a symbol of the progress from past to future.

And as we enter January goals and resolutions are being set for a new year. That what we have learned from our reflection is turned into plans to make it an even better year to come. It’s an old habit we can’t get rid off, apparently.

The motivation that drives us to financial independence is the will to create a different life for ourselves. Different from the status quo, and one where we are in better control of how and on what we spend our time. To pursue total freedom and independence of somebody you have to work for in order to get money. And one of the most important question for many FIRE seekers is: what are you going to do post-FIRE? Since that is where you’ll path will lead you.

This question has kept me busy for a while, and so far the best answer I got is: doing more of whatever we want to. It could literally be anything, as long as it is of value to us. Not very concrete, but then again we would just do more of the things we love and less of the things we don’t.

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old,but on building the new”

I’m hooked. I always thought podcasts were fun to listen to and hid a world of information. And it is!

I started listening to podcasts around 9 months ago but got into speed dial when I got a longer commute since the past month or so. The best thing about podcasts, besides that you can listen to it anywhere and everywhere, is that it’s both entertaining and could provide some amazing insights.

Most of the times we celebrate things, it’s about major milestones. Like a 30th birthday, or maybe a new job, getting married or reaching 100k of portfolio worth. On the other side, we never forget the major downfalls either, like the 1987 market crash, breaking up with someone or getting fired.

The crash of 1987 was the latest real depression so you could say. It also happened to be my birth year. As you can guess, today is my 30th birthday. And turning 30 is what many calls, the point of no return. You’re officially a responsible adult (or you should be) and you’re officially old. When you’re are actually 30 (or past it) you probably know it’s not that black and white. And instead of celebrating it big, I do something different.

There are numerous tools and apps that help you get insight into your finances, help you with investing or even in saving more money. The only downside is that most of them, like Capital One, Acorns, and Mint are only directed to the US markets. It looks like most financial innovations are happening overseas, at least for the convenience of the regular consumer.

We are a country that makes a lot of use of online banking (namely 83% of the Dutch population), have several companies that are disrupting the markets – Bunq, MoneYou, Knab, one new investing app called Bux, but limited availability of financial apps and digital services as it comes to our personal finances. How could this be in a country where digital innovation is so highly regarded? And where FinTech is a booming business?